’Tis there my house is built
A grass-green heath beside,
For me and for my bride.
Keep me no longer waiting,
Come, darling, to me now,
For we have far to go.
The little stars they light us,
The moon it shines so bright,
How fast the dead do ride!
But where wouldst thou then lead me?
Oh God! what wouldst thou do
All in the dark night too?
I cannot ride with thee,
Thy little bed’s too spare,
And thy way lies too far.
Alone lyest thou down,
Sleep, dearest, sleep away,
Until the judgment day.
Note.—Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Bd. 2, s. 19, where it is said to
have been heard by Burger in a night cellar. It is the original of
his celebrated Poem of the same name, which he was long supposed
to have copied from an English Ballad called “The Suffolk Miracle,”
which will be inserted in the “Lays and Legends of England.”
This, however, has been satisfactorily disproved by his biographer,
Althof, who states, that, Burger, one night, heard a peasant girl sing
an old German song, of which he only remembered a small portion,
and of which he never indeed recovered the whole. That song, of
course, is the one we have here translated as closely as we possibly
could, that our readers might compare it with the more finished
production to which it gave rise; an admirable translation of which
is, if we recollect rightly, to be found in Taylor's Historic Survey of
German Poetry.
